Golden Age of Zin: Joseph Swan '72 '82 '83, Sutter Home '71

[Tom_Gutting]

@jdietz

I bought the 82 Zin on WineBid last year for $20 (+ vig). Here’s my note, which is consistent with Mike’s.

9/15/2009 rated 90 points: Clearly older by its color, but lots of fruit and acid left. This IS on the downside and getting no better, but a bit left in the bottle for the next day actually seemed to have become more integrated and fuller somehow. Very good with pasta dish.

I have a 1981 and a 1983 Cab to open, but I can’t convince anyone to try these with me.

Uhhhhh … I’ll fly out to drink those.

[jdietz]

@Tom Gutting

@jdietz

I bought the 82 Zin on WineBid last year for $20 (+ vig). Here’s my note, which is consistent with Mike’s.

9/15/2009 rated 90 points: Clearly older by its color, but lots of fruit and acid left. This IS on the downside and getting no better, but a bit left in the bottle for the next day actually seemed to have become more integrated and fuller somehow. Very good with pasta dish.

I have a 1981 and a 1983 Cab to open, but I can’t convince anyone to try these with me.

Uhhhhh … I’ll fly out to drink those.

Next time you are in town… I’m just trying to get a rise out of my usual drinking buds. . not this nor an offer of a mag of 1988 Cheval Blanc has elicited much of a reaction.

[Merrill_Lindquist]

@john holdredge

@Merrill Lindquist

I have a 1987 Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel here in my cellar. Purchased upon release and transferred directly to my cellar, as a gift, in 2008. This one states 12-1/2% alcohol.
I’m not a Zinfandel person. Any idea what to expect from this bottle?

Joe’s last vintage- that alone makes it special. Plus a great year and an eager son in law working alongside. Pretty much says it should be awesome.

John - any idea about drinking window, or any recent experience with this one? I’m starting to get the idea that it is a bottle that should be shared. I guess I could email Rod if you have not had it.

[john_holdredge]

@Merrill Lindquist

@john holdredge

@Merrill Lindquist

I have a 1987 Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel here in my cellar. Purchased upon release and transferred directly to my cellar, as a gift, in 2008. This one states 12-1/2% alcohol.
I’m not a Zinfandel person. Any idea what to expect from this bottle?

Joe’s last vintage- that alone makes it special. Plus a great year and an eager son in law working alongside. Pretty much says it should be awesome.

John - any idea about drinking window, or any recent experience with this one? I’m starting to get the idea that it is a bottle that should be shared. I guess I could email Rod if you have not had it.

No and no idea. But I can’t imagine it needs more time. Find a friend, cook a meal and let it rip would be my suggestion.

[T_Melloni]

I like the line from the 82 Swan Vineyards Zinfandel tasting note . . . " still lovely and very much worth an hour of your time."

Classic. Tells much more than “85 points”.
T.

[G_Greenbaum]

@jdietz

@Tom Gutting

@jdietz

I bought the 82 Zin on WineBid last year for $20 (+ vig). Here’s my note, which is consistent with Mike’s.

9/15/2009 rated 90 points: Clearly older by its color, but lots of fruit and acid left. This IS on the downside and getting no better, but a bit left in the bottle for the next day actually seemed to have become more integrated and fuller somehow. Very good with pasta dish.

I have a 1981 and a 1983 Cab to open, but I can’t convince anyone to try these with me.

Uhhhhh … I’ll fly out to drink those.

Next time you are in town… I’m just trying to get a rise out of my usual drinking buds. . not this nor an offer of a mag of 1988 Cheval Blanc has elicited much of a reaction.

JD - You are clearly hanging out with a bunch of wankers. Do the right thing.

[jdietz]

@G. Greenbaum

@jdietz

@Tom Gutting

Uhhhhh … I’ll fly out to drink those.

Next time you are in town… I’m just trying to get a rise out of my usual drinking buds. . not this nor an offer of a mag of 1988 Cheval Blanc has elicited much of a reaction.

JD - You are clearly hanging out with a bunch of wankers. Do the right thing.

Don’t I know, 3G!! I guess I need to head to BLQ one night and share with those who care!!

[cganzer]

@Merrill Lindquist

I have a 1987 Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel here in my cellar. Purchased upon release and transferred directly to my cellar, as a gift, in 2008. This one states 12-1/2% alcohol.
I’m not a Zinfandel person. Any idea what to expect from this bottle?

I bought a few from a different cellar about 3 years ago, still have a couple left. Acidity was searing, but it has nice earthy, dried cherry fruit and very modest alcohol. I didn’t consider it “great,” but it’s very good. It’d be a fun bottle to throw blind into a Burgundy or Rioja tasting.

Annoyingly, I missed the 72 Swan Zins from this cellar (my birthyear), but did score some fun bottles from it.

Might be time for a comprehensive tasting of Swans from Joe’s era! I’ve got some 70s and 80s pinots as well. Now to find the elusive 70 Napa Gamay…

[Wes_Barton]

@john holdredge

@M. Sai

@john holdredge

still quite legal in CA

Any thoughts to why we don’t see this more often? (Besides most wines being north of 14%…)

We did it on one wine a few years back- and I dont remember why. I do think the “table wine” denomination may not be synonymous with quality for some drinkers.

It’s a legal category, with a defined range. Note that any number in that range don’t have to be particularly accurate, just within 1.5% and actually under 14%. (Over 14% is classified as “fortified wine” and is taxed at a higher rate.)

So, while in the U.S. the term “table wine” is neutral, in Europe it is a category synonymous with jug wine.

You may also notice some wineries (especially on older bottles) that always state 12.5% on their wines. That just means listing an accurate number for each wine wasn’t deemed important, and it could be anything from 11-14%.

[G_Greenbaum]

@cganzer

@Merrill Lindquist

I have a 1987 Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel here in my cellar. Purchased upon release and transferred directly to my cellar, as a gift, in 2008. This one states 12-1/2% alcohol.
I’m not a Zinfandel person. Any idea what to expect from this bottle?

I bought a few from a different cellar about 3 years ago, still have a couple left. Acidity was searing, but it has nice earthy, dried cherry fruit and very modest alcohol. I didn’t consider it “great,” but it’s very good. It’d be a fun bottle to throw blind into a Burgundy or Rioja tasting.

Annoyingly, I missed the 72 Swan Zins from this cellar (my birthyear), but did score some fun bottles from it.

Might be time for a comprehensive tasting of Swans from Joe’s era! I’ve got some 70s and 80s pinots as well. Now to find the elusive 70 Napa Gamay…

Don’t feel too bad. I thought I had bought some, but somebody’s brain farted.

[john_holdredge]

@G. Greenbaum

@cganzer

@Merrill Lindquist

I have a 1987 Swan Sonoma County Zinfandel here in my cellar. Purchased upon release and transferred directly to my cellar, as a gift, in 2008. This one states 12-1/2% alcohol.
I’m not a Zinfandel person. Any idea what to expect from this bottle?

I bought a few from a different cellar about 3 years ago, still have a couple left. Acidity was searing, but it has nice earthy, dried cherry fruit and very modest alcohol. I didn’t consider it “great,” but it’s very good. It’d be a fun bottle to throw blind into a Burgundy or Rioja tasting.

Annoyingly, I missed the 72 Swan Zins from this cellar (my birthyear), but did score some fun bottles from it.

Might be time for a comprehensive tasting of Swans from Joe’s era! I’ve got some 70s and 80s pinots as well. Now to find the elusive 70 Napa Gamay…

Don’t feel too bad. I thought I had bought some, but somebody’s brain farted.

Yeah, I also bought, paid and was invoiced for the 72 Lot 2 which was offered, only to get an email today saying it was “mislabeled” and offering the 83 instead. No thanks.

[cganzer]

@"john holdredge

Yeah, I also bought, paid and was invoiced for the 72 Lot 2 which was offered, only to get an email today saying it was “mislabeled” and offering the 83 instead. No thanks.

Having perpetrated the same sorts of errors from time to time, I have a lot of sympathy. And, to Benchmark’s credit, they called yesterday to let me know, I took some time finding another bottle to fill out the case, and they still pulled it and shipped it on time on what must have been a pretty busy day for them.

Also it’s a bit comforting to know that I didn’t so much miss them as that they didn’t exist at all!

[M_Sai]

Yeah, our apologies on that one. Our automated system that preps the wines for our online database will occasionally spit-out bum data. Normally we catch the errors, but this cellar was so huge that this one was over-looked. And of course it happened with one of the more popular wines… Take comfort in the fact that the wines were not sold to someone else - they never existed in the first place.

[S_Haller]

@john holdredge

Yeah, I also bought, paid and was invoiced for the 72 Lot 2 which was offered, only to get an email today saying it was “mislabeled” and offering the 83 instead. No thanks.

+1. Just got my e-mail from them about it. It’s a shame since I was a first time buyer after receiving e-mails from them for a while but never pulled the trigger to buy something from them. Look what happens when I did.

[john_holdredge]

@S Haller

@john holdredge

Yeah, I also bought, paid and was invoiced for the 72 Lot 2 which was offered, only to get an email today saying it was “mislabeled” and offering the 83 instead. No thanks.

+1. Just got my e-mail from them about it. It’s a shame since I was a first time buyer after receiving e-mails from them for a while but never pulled the trigger to buy something from them. Look what happens when I did.

Isn’t this where we are supposed to make all kinds of wild-eyed accusations, suggest conspiracies, hurl slurs and generally disparage Benchmark on every conceivable and inconceivable ground, after which others claim a different experience in their dealings, leading to some vitrioloic back and forth, followed by the inevitable “it’s just wine” post (that would usually be mine), followed by “you should have tried to resolve it with the merchant before trashing them on the board”, followed by “they’ve always been good to me” posts, followed by more flaming, and eventually degenerating into a totally incomprehensible mess at which point someone posts a picture of a train wreck, after which it lays quiesscent for a few days until someone resurerects it for awhile?

Whew. Glad I got that out of the way and saved all of us a lot of trouble. Carry on.

[Tyler_Rico]

@john holdredge

@S Haller

@john holdredge

Yeah, I also bought, paid and was invoiced for the 72 Lot 2 which was offered, only to get an email today saying it was “mislabeled” and offering the 83 instead. No thanks.

+1. Just got my e-mail from them about it. It’s a shame since I was a first time buyer after receiving e-mails from them for a while but never pulled the trigger to buy something from them. Look what happens when I did.

Isn’t this where we are supposed to make all kinds of wild-eyed accusations, suggest conspiracies, hurl slurs and generally disparage Benchmark on every conceivable and inconceivable ground, after which others claim a different experience in their dealings, leading to some vitrioloic back and forth, followed by the inevitable “it’s just wine” post (that would usually be mine), followed by “you should have tried to resolve it with the merchant before trashing them on the board”, followed by “they’ve always been good to me” posts, followed by more flaming, and eventually degenerating into a totally incomprehensible mess at which point someone posts a picture of a train wreck, after which it lays quiesscent for a few days until someone resurerects it for awhile?

Whew. Glad I got that out of the way and saved all of us a lot of trouble. Carry on.

throw in some open letters and a self banishment or two then we can call it a day

[Cris_Whetstone]

@Tyler Rico

@john holdredge

@S Haller

+1. Just got my e-mail from them about it. It’s a shame since I was a first time buyer after receiving e-mails from them for a while but never pulled the trigger to buy something from them. Look what happens when I did.

Isn’t this where we are supposed to make all kinds of wild-eyed accusations, suggest conspiracies, hurl slurs and generally disparage Benchmark on every conceivable and inconceivable ground, after which others claim a different experience in their dealings, leading to some vitrioloic back and forth, followed by the inevitable “it’s just wine” post (that would usually be mine), followed by “you should have tried to resolve it with the merchant before trashing them on the board”, followed by “they’ve always been good to me” posts, followed by more flaming, and eventually degenerating into a totally incomprehensible mess at which point someone posts a picture of a train wreck, after which it lays quiesscent for a few days until someone resurerects it for awhile?

Whew. Glad I got that out of the way and saved all of us a lot of trouble. Carry on.

throw in some open letters and a self banishment or two then we can call it a day

Before or after a moderator deletes a couple random posts and then warns everyone with some barely veiled insults?

[Mel_Hill]

@Cris Whetstone

@Tyler Rico

@john holdredge

Isn’t this where we are supposed to make all kinds of wild-eyed accusations, suggest conspiracies, hurl slurs and generally disparage Benchmark on every conceivable and inconceivable ground, after which others claim a different experience in their dealings, leading to some vitrioloic back and forth, followed by the inevitable “it’s just wine” post (that would usually be mine), followed by “you should have tried to resolve it with the merchant before trashing them on the board”, followed by “they’ve always been good to me” posts, followed by more flaming, and eventually degenerating into a totally incomprehensible mess at which point someone posts a picture of a train wreck, after which it lays quiesscent for a few days until someone resurerects it for awhile?

Whew. Glad I got that out of the way and saved all of us a lot of trouble. Carry on.

throw in some open letters and a self banishment or two then we can call it a day

Before or after a moderator deletes a couple random posts and then warns everyone with some barely veiled insults?

This is starting to remind me of the joke were the prisoners just say #'s…

[john_holdredge]

Just getting a jump on things.

[Marshall_Gelb]

@jdietz

@G. Greenbaum

@jdietz

Next time you are in town… I’m just trying to get a rise out of my usual drinking buds. . not this nor an offer of a mag of 1988 Cheval Blanc has elicited much of a reaction.

JD - You are clearly hanging out with a bunch of wankers. Do the right thing.

Don’t I know, 3G!! I guess I need to head to BLQ one night and share with those who care!!

C’mon JD…must be time to journey from the OC!!!


Cheers!
Marshall